The blood-red storm gradually dissipated, revealing the two demon bears inside, their bodies now covered in countless large and small wounds.
After taking two full rounds of spell traps head-on, their originally iron-gray, armor-like skin had lost all its former luster.
Kelta had once witnessed how imperial prisoners were executed back in the city.
The miserable state of the two demon bears now looked no different from those death-row inmates just before their execution, their bodies riddled with injuries.
But clearly, no matter how badly injured they appeared, they were fundamentally different from those prisoners bound in heavy chains, silently awaiting death.
Because they still had the strength to struggle.
The stronger of the two demon bears was the first to lower the massive paw covering its eyes.
Its huge bear eyes darted around.
Once it confirmed the terrifying storm had vanished, it suddenly lifted both front paws while its thick hind legs pushed off the ground with explosive force.
With a speed completely at odds with its enormous size, it lunged straight at the human who had hurt it!
Ed wasted no words on the beast.
He swung his sword in a quick upward arc.
Emerald light gathered along the blade and formed a wind blade, but the moment it reached the demon bear it was slapped apart, scattering back into loose wind-element particles.
“I’ll help!”
Bailis came running from a distance.
She still remembered Ed’s instructions.
Murmuring a short incantation under her breath, she summoned a fireball slightly wider than the demon bear’s paw and smashed it hard into the beast’s chest.
The scorching flames ignited its fur, drawing out a pained howl.
Hearing that miserable cry, Kelta and Sylvia finally snapped out of their daze and drew their own weapons.
The young adventurer gripped his short blades and was about to charge straight in, but the moment he took a step, Ed’s stern gaze pinned him in place.
“Wait your turn!”
Ed had no time to explain further. Bailis’s magic and his own spells only slowed the demon bear down slightly.
The injuries instead fueled the beast’s primal ferocity even more.
It shielded its face and neck with one paw and continued its fearless, thunderous charge, roaring as it barreled forward despite Ed and Bailis’s attacks.
Kelta watched the two of them fight and bit his lip in frustration.
“Listen to Mr. Ed,” Sylvia whispered in his ear as she pulled a potion bottle from her waist pouch.
“The demon bear still has plenty of stamina left. If you rush in now, you’ll probably die.”
“But…”
The young apothecary girl hurled the bottle with all her strength. It spun through the air and shattered against the demon bear.
The instant the glass broke, lightning exploded outward like writhing serpents, racing across the beast’s body and paralyzing it mid-motion.
After doing that, she pulled two bows from her back and handed one to the young adventurer without a word.
Kelta blinked. “This bow is…”
“I thought something like this might happen, so I brought an extra one when we left. Didn’t you say you can use a bow too? Take it. Right now our job is to create openings for the two of them, not throw our lives away for nothing,” the girl said quietly.
The young apothecary girl said no more.
She nocked an arrow, drew, and fired.
The shot nearly struck the paw covering the demon bear’s face.
Kelta glanced at the bow in his hand, then at Ed and Bailis still locked in combat with the demon bear.
After a brief hesitation, he raised his own bow as well.
As for the demon bear, although it had protected its face with its paw, it had also lost most of its vision.
It could only charge around wildly or swipe blindly with its free paw at where it remembered its enemies had been.
With such crude, unrefined attacks, there was no way it could hit Ed.
He weaved nimbly between the demon bear’s strikes.
The moment its defense wavered under the magic and distant arrows, he drove his sword into its arm, used the leverage to flip himself upward, and landed on the demon bear’s left shoulder as he pulled the blade free.
ROOOAR!!!
When the cold glint of the sword tip brushed the skin of its vital spot, the demon bear’s roar visibly grew even more frenzied.
Bang!
Its giant paw slammed down on its own left shoulder, but Ed was already gone.
In the blink of an eye he had leaped from its left shoulder to its right.
Seizing the moment of confusion, he thrust his sword straight at the demon bear’s throat!
One more strike and the demon bear would surely die.
Bailis was just about to cheer when her expression suddenly filled with horror.
“Ed, behind you!”
A razor-sharp sense of danger stabbed into his back like an icy wind.
Ed didn’t have time to think.
He leaped off the demon bear’s shoulder in a flash.
The next instant, a bear paw whistled past the spot where he had just been standing, carrying a gust of foul wind.
Ed steadied himself against the ground and looked up.
Only then did he realize the second demon bear had risen as well and had taken the chance to launch a sneak attack.
The two demon bears were together again.
Their combined threat was far more than one plus one.
Taking down even one of them now meant facing twice the danger.
The slightest mistake and those heavy, powerful claws would turn him into a bloody smear.
This was where the spell traps proved their worth.
Under the influence of their injuries, the demon bears moved far less nimbly than when they had chased him earlier.
Even when both attacked at once, Ed could still dodge with ease and occasionally land new wounds on them.
Seeing that Ed was unharmed, Bailis finally relaxed.
But the next moment, a sudden surge of rage flooded her mind.
They were nothing but two slightly stronger beasts. How dare they try to hurt Ed?
How dare they?!
The strange fury came without warning.
Even when Ed had been surrounded by the kobold priest’s magic before, she had never felt such overwhelming anger burning inside her.
Bailis thrust her hand upward.
For a brief moment she forgot Ed’s warning and skipped the incantation entirely.
Extremely dense mana gathered in her palm.
A light breeze brushed across the girl’s face, lifting her bright silver bangs and revealing a faint golden mark on her smooth forehead.
It looked like a key forged from molten gold.
Noble, mysterious, and radiating an extraordinary aura.
“Stop!” she commanded.
Her voice overlapped strangely, as if it no longer belonged to her alone.
The order drilled into everyone’s ears—including the two demon bears.
Something astonishing happened.
The demon bears froze mid-motion as if they had truly obeyed the command.
They stopped resisting.
They stopped struggling.
In the space of a single blink, a massive, dazzling wind blade slashed across the throat of the stronger demon bear at blinding speed.
A thin red line appeared.
Under the stunned gazes of the other three, the demon bear’s head was instantly severed from its body.
The headless corpse collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
For a moment, the battlefield fell completely silent.
“Bailis…”
After what felt like a long time, Ed spoke her name in a low voice, looking at the girl with clear concern.
“That power was…”
“So Miss Bailis has been hiding her strength this whole time…”
Kelta stared at the demon bear’s corpse and muttered in a daze.
Sylvia recovered first.
“Hiding or not doesn’t matter right now—we still have to deal with the last one!”
Kelta snapped awake and looked over.
Ed was already engaged with the remaining demon bear again.
The two of them didn’t hesitate any longer.
They nocked arrows and waited for the exact moment Ed and the demon bear separated before firing.
Perhaps affected by something, the demon bear’s mind remained hazy.
It didn’t even try to dodge.
The arrow sank straight into its eye socket.
Perfect chance!
Ed dropped low, then sprang upward.
His sharp blade glowed with emerald light as he slashed across the demon bear’s throat.
After a slight resistance, the sword sliced cleanly through, severing the head.
The headless body swayed for a moment before crashing to the ground.
“Th-they’re… dead?”
Kelta rubbed his eyes, staring at the two massive, motionless corpses on the clearing.
Just a few minutes ago he would never have imagined the battle could end so easily.
But after that single commanding shout from the girl, everything had become almost too simple to accept.
It was almost as if…
the demon bears had simply run over and offered themselves up to die.
Kelta slapped his own face, telling himself not to think such ridiculous thoughts.
How could anyone possibly command demon beasts?
Before he could dwell on it further, a woman’s desperate cry for help drifted closer from the forest, forcibly pulling his attention away.
Was there another undiscovered demon bear?
Kelta and Sylvia exchanged a glance and raised their bows again, aiming toward the dark depths of the woods.
Ed heard the voice too.
He first walked over to the girl, lowered his head, and watched her stare blankly at her own palm.
The faint golden flames slowly faded from her crimson eyes.
“Ed, I…”
“Don’t say anything.”
The youth’s voice was unusually grave.
“We’ll talk properly once we get back.”
Ed reached out, wanting to pat her head to comfort her, but halfway there he realized his hand was already covered in blood and filth. He could only withdraw it helplessly.
The girl hung her head, looking like a child who had done something wrong.
But then a familiar presence entered her mana perception. She lifted her head in confusion.
This feeling… it was a little like…
Little Black?
Her eyes slowly widened.
“Ed…” She hesitated, then tugged on the youth’s sleeve. “That looks like Little Black up ahead…”
“Little Black?”
Ed thought for a moment before remembering that was the name the girl had given to the black cat-like demon beast back in the cave.
That thing was no pushover either.
But from the sound of it, was it chasing a woman?
Just to be safe, Ed drew his sword again and pointed it in the direction of the voice.
Seconds ticked by.
Under the tense gazes of the four, a pink-haired woman stumbled out of the forest first.
The moment she saw Ed pointing his sword at her, she froze.
“No… Nord?” She rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“Miss Melina?” Ed was stunned as well.
The woman’s expression suddenly changed.
“Run, Nord…”
Before she could finish, a black shadow shot past her side at terrifying speed—heading straight for Bailis!